Concerns about Chinese Consumers are Overblown

On : February 28, 2019

Keeping
a close watch on the Chinese consumer is the main pastime of economists these
days. Since trade pressures have had a
measurable effect on the manufacturing sector of the Chinese economy, it is
natural to watch the effect they’re having on the other side, the
consumer.

Based
on the year-over-year expenditures-per-capita increase of 14.8% in 2018
compared to 2017, it seems that consumers are holding up pretty well. The only area of steep purchasing decline was
seen in the automobile sector. Balancing against
the auto decline are the dramatic expenditure increases in service categories
like healthcare, leisure and travel healthcare expenditures.

Tianjie
He, senior economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in January,

“The
fact that retail sales excluding cars (have) held up well and consumer
confidence has also improved indicate that concerns about China’s consumers are
largely overdone.” Source: CNBC

Mobile Ads Need to Conquer Two Levels of Distraction

On : February 27, 2019

Have
you ever thought about what you did before your mobile phone placed the world at
your finger tips? What you did while
watching TV or before you go to sleep?

In
today’s world you pick up your mobile phone because watching TV or falling
asleep is not enough to keep your fragmented mind occupied.

Turns
out that those times when you’re doing something else, when you used to just do
that something, whatever it was, is now good time for advertisers to reach you
with their mobile message – this according to a survey of 1,000 adults who
apparently had nothing else to do.

Note
to advertisers: Your message has got to be compelling because you’re hoping to
pull a user’s attention away from the content on his/her mobile devise and
the other thing he or she is doing at the same time. Source: MediaPost

China is Approaches 1.3 Billion Smartphone Subscribers

On : February 26, 2019

The
big smartphone news from last month was that Apple’s phone sales in China had crashed
in the last quarter. But that didn’t
mean that smartphone sales in China had turned negative. The carrier numbers
from January imply that Chinese manufacturers have replaced Apple sales and then
some. Smartphone subscribers in China
hit 11.3 million in January, which is a half million above the 12-month average
for last year. Sources: China Mobile,
China Unicom, China Telecom

AI-Infused Marketing

On : February 25, 2019

A
panel at CES threw some light on the advantages of AI-infused data analysis in
marketing.

In
spite of all the talk, AI’s role in audience targeting has just begun. Matthew Patrick, host and creator of the
YouTube channels The Game Theorists, made the point that “a lot of content
creators and brands are still planning campaigns off gut feelings” rather than
using the dozens of data points that are available for guidance.

One
of the areas in which data can be better used is geo-location. A deeper view allows advertisers to reach
into neighborhoods rather than whole cities – the messaging to an affluent
neighborhood verses a working class neighborhood might be different.

And
with testing, AI can help you better reach your intended audience by indicating
where your message is connecting and where it’s not.

Testing
can look back toward the creator him/herself.
If you know your audience from data, you can sift through the thousands
of content creators/influencers to find the right person for your project. That sifting process will reveal the phonies
and the robotic content producers you want to avoid. Source: CampaignUS

The Same Old, Same Old

On : February 22, 2019

Nothing
new is reveled about the concerns of both brands and their agencies regarding
in-app advertising. Fraud and
viewability are concerns for both brands and agencies, though fraud is a bigger
conern for brands. Eliminating those
concerns is required by about half of the media buyers surveyed, roughly the
same as those with concerns.

Buying
criteria follows standard logic; targeting leads the way. Inventory quality and brand safety are a
significant part of the buying criteria as well and they reflect the concerns
expressed in the survey.

It
is striking how these results are similar to results one would expect from a
survey asking about buying web traffic. With all the talk of the fast changing digital
world, this makes it look like more of the same. Source: App Developer Magazine

It’s Hard to Keep Facebook Down, Even for China

On : February 21, 2019

The
closest thing to water in the digital universe is Facebook. One can try to wall it off, but it will seep
into everything, even places that have been waterproofed. Hence, the news from The Street and from
Pivotal Research that Facebook, which has been banned from China since 2009,
yielded $5-$7 billon in advertising revenue from the country during 2018, is
proof of the theory. China is the fifth
largest contributor to Facebook’s ad revenue behind the US, Russia, Turkey and
Canada.

Facebook’s
work around is its link to Meet Social, a Chinese company that is estimated to
have placed tens of thousands of daily ads on Facebook. There’s the leak. And there’s the key any China successful strategy
– it’s best to connect with a local company as many big Western companies doing
business in China have. Source: CCN.com

AI-Infused Marketing

On : February 20, 2019

We
often detach elements of the marketing process to our disadvantage. Here’s an example of AI integration through
the whole marketing process.

Regardless
of the product or service being offered, you should start with an AI software
search of the web for competitive products/services. Gather data about competitive features and
benefits and pricing. With that information
you can fit your product/service into a
marketing mix and determine who your customer is likely to be.

Now
you’re ready to employ AI content creation tools to align your messages to
reach the defined audience through your website, social media and
advertising. AI informed messaging fine
tunes the communication and will yield a better result both for brand building
and advertsing results. Equities.com

Chinese Manufacturer’s Bail Out in January

On : February 19, 2019

The
precipitous -3.8% drop compared to November’s number is the largest decline we
have seen since we’ve been watching and the lowest this Index has fallen since
February of 2016. Obviously, the trade
wars have taken hold and are now affecting the judgment of purchasers in the
manufacturing sector. Index numbers
below 50 are on the negative side for futures.
Notably, the January number for the Services sector, as reported last
week, remianed at a healthy 53.3. Source: Markit Economics

Typical Newbie Content Marketing Mistakes

On : February 15, 2019

Basic to all good communication is knowing your intended
audience. That’s where it all starts.
Yet, too much of what we produce is driven by what we want potential customers
to hear rather than customer needs. Once
created, we often make our content difficult to access where customers are.

But the greatest sin may be to create content without a
solid, data-oriented strategy and performance metrics for measuring
results. This leads to content that’s
disconnected from business strategies, content that’s doomed to fail in its
communication and doomed to waste money as well.

Another mistake is to flood the zone with content rather
than delivering a more focused, deliberate message. Randy Frisch: Co-Founder, CMO, and President
of Uberflip observes, “Many organizations believed if they simply created
content, people would come. You know like Kevin Costner in ‘Field of Dreams’”. All of which goes back to the first point:
know your audience and then target them with your message. Source: MarTech Advisor

Advertising in China was up 5.2% in 2018

On : February 14, 2019

Ad spend in China increased in 2018 by 5.2%, up to $92.7
billion. Like in the US, the digital and
out-of-home gains are coming at the expense of declining traditional TV
advertising. Much of the Internet
spending is driven by e-commerce, as would be expected.

Patrick Xu, CEO of GroupM China and WPP China comments that “Improving
the quality and personalization of brand marketing is also increasingly
important and will be a strong driver of growth in the advertising ecosystem.” Source:
Shine